Death dying essays

The sun was now low beneath the horizon. Darkness spread
rapidly. None of my selves could see anything beyond the tapering
light of our headlamps on the hedge. I summoned them together.
"Now," I said, "comes the season of making up our accounts. Now
we have got to collect ourselves; we have got to be one self.
Nothing is to be seen any more, except one wedge of road and bank
which our lights repeat incessantly. We are perfectly provided
for. We are warmly wrapped in a rug; we are protected from wind
and rain. We are alone. Now is the time of reckoning. Now I, who
preside over the company, am going to arrange in order the
trophies which we have all brought in. Let me see; there was a
great deal of beauty brought in to-day: farmhouses; cliffs
standing out to sea; marbled fields; mottled fields; red
feathered skies; all that. Also there was disappearance and the
death of the individual. The vanishing road and the window lit
for a second and then dark. And then there was the sudden dancing
light, that was hung in the future. What we have made then
to-day," I said, "is this: that beauty; death of the individual;
and the future. Look, I will make a little figure for your
satisfaction; here he comes. Does this little figure advancing
through beauty, through death, to the economical, powerful and
efficient future when houses will be cleansed by a puff of hot
wind satisfy you? Look at him; there on my knee." We sat and
looked at the figure we had made that day. Great sheer slabs of
rock, tree tufted, surrounded him. He was for a second very, very
solemn. Indeed it seemed as if the reality of things were
displayed there on the rug. A violent thrill ran through us; as
if a charge of electricity had entered in to us. We cried out
together: "Yes, yes," as if affirming something, in a moment of
recognition.

Foodways and the mentioning
of the picture of The Last Supper hanging in the Grant's
classroom, the church (Gaines 34), add to recognition of Jefferson
as a "Christ figure" later in the story. In Jefferson's
diary, the notations made about his last meal confirm the drastic
changes in his personality—changes in his self-identity. When
asked what he wants for dessert, Jefferson says, " . .
i tol him jus a little ice crme in a cup" (Gaines 232).
Then, Jefferson records his enjoyment of the food, ".
. it was the bes meal i kno my nanan ever cook" (Gaines
232).